Off-season showcases take stage

The December and January holiday season is upon us, and so is an important four-week run through the Perfect Game winter showcase season. Perfect Game is extending invitations to six showcase events in Phoenix, Ariz., and Fort Myers, Fla., beginning the first week of December and concluding the first week of January.

The first two events – the 2011 West Uncommitted Showcase and the 2011 National Underclass Showcase-Session 1 – will be staged Dec. 3-4 at the Camelback Ranch complex in Phoenix. From there, the action moves to Fort Myers for four prestigious events that officially kick off the 2012 showcase and tournament seasons.

The 2011 National Underclass Show Case-Main Event will run Dec. 28-30 at the Boston Red Sox Player Development 5-Plex, with some spill-over into Terry Park. The 2012 National Underclass Showcase-Session 3, World Open Uncommitted Showcase and the prestigious World Showcase will all run simultaneously Jan. 7-8 at Terry Park.

This is an important time for aspiring prospects to attend a Perfect Game showcase.

“The most important reason for attending our showcase is that you are being scouted by the Perfect Game staff,” Jim Arp, PG’s National Director of Showcases, wrote in a letter to perspective prospects. “If we don’t see you and get a report on you, we will not know if you are a player that should be included in our rankings or be invited to our National Showcase.

“It is also important that you promote yourself as a player to as many (college) coaches as possible.”

All three underclass showcase events provide an excellent opportunity for prospects in the classes of 2013, 2014 and 2015 to get their names out in front of the coaching and scouting communities. The two “uncommitted” showcases and the World Showcase are open to prospects in the class of 2012, as well.

The World Showcase, first staged in 1997, is Perfect Game’s longest running national-level showcase event. Its alumni include big-leaguers Carl Crawford, Zack Greinke and Justin Upton, among dozens of others, and at least a dozen first-round picks in the MLB draft.

Twenty-one participants in last January’s 2011 World Showcase were drafted in June, including second-rounders Jorge Lopez, Alex Santana and Daniel Vogelbach.

Please access the following links for more information on each of these showcases: